Tezos is a self-amending blockchain that can evolve by upgrading itself. Stakeholders vote on amendments to the protocol, including amendments to the voting procedure itself, to reach social consensus on proposals. Tezos supports smart contracts and offers a platform to build decentralized applications. Tezos’ unique Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm gives every stakeholder the opportunity to participate in the validation of transactions on the network and be rewarded by the protocol for doing so. XTZ is used to pay for transaction fees and smart contract execution as well as staking directly on the network. All tokens staked to the network receive a reward of newly distributed XTZ tokens in proportion to the number of tokens staked.